Coral Bay to Jurien Bay

Coral Bay to Carnarvon– Friday 23 September 2011

On the road again today and heading for Carnarvon, about 240km, with a heavy head wind all the way, there goes the fuel economy.  Arrived Carnarvon early afternoon and stayed at the Wintersun Caravan Park, good park with cement slabs and grass, heaven.

Had a look around town, went out to the 1mile jetty that was built in the 1800s, today it is used for tourism were the Coffee Pot Train takes you out to the end of the jetty.  Carnarvon is a real fresh food oasis, our park backed onto a farm that had acres and acres of tomatoes plants in and about a metre high, no frost issues here.

1 Mile Jetty, Carnarvon

Coffee Pot Train

Carnarvon – Saturday 24 September 2011

Tourist day today, first stop was of course the markets, I must admit they were good, nice fresh coffee and pancakes along with plenty of fresh produce.  We bought strawberries for $2.00 a punnet, twice the size punnet that you get from Woolies, Bananas $3.00kg, Farm fresh eggs $4.00 doz along with fresh beans, avocado’s and so much more, and of course the chocolate dipped frozen bananas were just fantastic.

Once we dragged ourselves away we headed north out to the Blowholes to check them out, what a sight.  The seas were rough with a big south-easterly blowing and the blow hole was fairly pumping. 

Blowhole in full force

Rugged coastline out at the Blowholes

 We then decided to head back into town and go to the races, it was Carnarvon Cup day. People we met in Coral Bay had a horse running in the cup.  Well we won a bit and lost a bit, coming home roughly even, having a great afternoon.  The horse we were tipped didn’t fair that well, but that racing so they say.

At the races

At least I look like a punter

Carnarvon to Denham – Sunday 25 September 2011

Today was the day to remember, it was our 29^th Wedding Anniversary, and we spent the majority of the day in the car heading to Denham (Shark Bay).  We arrived early afternoon to this great park called Denham Seaside Caravan Park, our site overlooked the beach and the transparent blue waters, just magic, that was until the wind came up, but it was still good. 

Just one of the sights you see on the roads up here

It's also common to have to line up for fuel

Our great site looking out across the bay

Sunset from our back door

We celebrated our anniversary by having dinner at the Old Pearl Restaurant, the building is the most westerly restaurant in Australia and is made of shell blocks, quarried nearby.  What a great evening the meal was fantastic (local crayfish are just fantastic), we chatted to a couple on the table next to us and had a lovely evening.

Celebrating our 29th Wedding Anniversary

The Old Pearl Restaurant, made of shell blocks

Denham, Monkey Mia – Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 September 2011

Up early and headed over to Monkey Mia to watch the dolphins come into feed, need to be there by 7:30am and it is a 30km drive.  We arrived and waited on the shore with about 400 others for the dolphins to come in, the dolphins do as they wish and apparently they sometimes don’t come in, as it happens about 3 times a year and yep we picked that day. 

Not a dolphin in sight

We waited on the beach for a couple of hours, lucky the weather was warm and the coffee was nice, at 10:30am we were booked on a cruise out to the Black Pearl Farm and then to spot Dugongs and Dolphins.  The cruise was great, we headed to the “Black Pearl Farm” and was met by Jamie, (those who watch Farmer Wants a Wife will know him), he showed us around his farm and also how they grow black pearls.  After this we  headed out into the bay to look for Dugongs, a very funny looking mammal with a flat nose and basically ugly.  We saw a few and also a few dolphins.   Back to Monkey Mia and were lucky enough to see 2 dolphins come in to the beach, the rangers can only feed the dolphins up to midday, but what we saw was these dolphins hunting down their own fish in the shallows, very special.

Jamie from the Black Pearl Farm

Dolphins playing in the bow wave

Take 2 Tuesday we ventured out to Monkey Mia again, this time a little luckier, 3 dolphins were in by 8am and Marlene was lucky enough to be chosen to feed one.  I was unlucky as the battery went flat in the camera just as it happened, you can only imagine!  We hung around and had coffee and chatted to some people, lucky as about 9 dolphins came into the beach about 10am so we watched them being feed again, very special.

Day 2 the dolphins came in

I'm looking at you

 Back in Denham, we caught up with Don & Patti a NZ couple that were friends with a couple (John & Jen) from a Kimberley trip.  Don & Patti are travelling around Oz, we had dinner with them and enjoyed the night talking about our trips.

Hooked up and ready to leave Denham - check out the grassy sites, sure

Denham to Kalbarri – Wednesday 28 September 2011


On the road again, 350+km with a head wind again heading for Kalbarri, on the way the car had its 100000km birthday.  When we arrive in Perth we will give it another oil change to celebrate, its worked very hard since the last one in Darwin. 



Still looks good even after the 100,000km birthday

We stopped in at Shell Cove, the entire beach is made up of small shells for as far as you can see. Then stopped at Hamlin Pools to check out the Stromatolites, the oldest living organism on the planet, it also a shell quarry where the shell blocks for the restaurant in Denham were cut.

Shells from Shell Cove, the beach goes for miles

Shell blocks quarry

Stromatolites at Hamlin Bay

We arrived in Kalbarri late after, another nice little coastal town, backing onto the Kalbarri National Park, by now the wild flowers are certainly one of the key features they are everywhere.

Kalbarri – Thursday 29 and Friday 30 September 2011

Another big day today, our Princess turns 24, along with a couple of other close friends ( Happy Birthday Catherine, Julie and Shirley) so on the phone early for us, being 2 hours behind Canberra makes it easy to make an early call. 

We headed out to the National Park and spent time at the Natures Window, the Z Bend and Hawkes Head, just marvellous all of them and of course we spotted many beautiful wild flowers.  We had a picnic lunch out there and went on some nice walks through the park, we arrived home ready for dinner and a beer.

Natures Window

Here we are sitting in the wind

Enough said

 Friday we headed south along the coast to check out more spectacular scenery, including the Natural Bridge formation, Island Rock and Eagle Gorge the coastal cliffs are very similar to that along the Great Ocean Rd.  We were also lucky enough to see 5 Whales and 20 or more dolphins frolicking in the sea not that far of shore, they did all their tricks just for us.

Natural Bridge

Island Rock

Coastal cliffs to the south

and the coastline to the north

Back in town for lunch, haircuts during the afternoon an drinks with Don & Patti before we head off tomorrow for Geraldton.

Kalbarri to Geraldton – 1 October 2011

Not a big drive today only 150km down the coast to Geraldton, the biggest thing we noticed on the trip was the change in scenery, we have moved from long flat straights to now rolling hills and green  paddocks and crops.   We called into to Port Gregory to look at the Pink Lake, and it is very pink and impressive. The second thing we needed to get use to again was traffic lights, which we have not seen since Katherine, back in mid-August.

Pink Lake at Port Gregory

It is a bright pink

Had a look around the town and visited the WA Museum, which has a great tribute to the HMAS Sydney II and the effort that went into searching for it.  We also saw the Pacific Sun cruise ship in the harbour, on its way to Broome.  During the afternoon we also kept tabs with the AFL grand final and was pleased to hear Geelong score a win over Collingwood.

Pacific Sun at Geraldton

Geraldton to Jurien Bay – Sunday 2 October 2011

Another easy day, with a 215km drive down the coast to Jurien Bay, a pleasant trip very scenic being able to look out over the ocean most of the way.  Arrived about midday, this is only a little fishing and crayfish village, with great beaches, had a walk along the beach, then settled in by 2pm to watch then Mighty Manly Sea Eagles take on and score victory over the Warriors in the NRL Grand Final.  Kit was all over by 4:15pm and I must say not a lot of people over here showed a great deal of interest in this grand final.  I have just seen my two favourite football teams win over the weekend, could I be lucky enough to see a big win on the mountain next weekend?

We move onto Perth tomorrow.

Jurien Bay coastline

Some of the fabulous Wild Flowers we have seen

 

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